An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 298

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 298
Part 2. There Are Certainly Many Strange People (3)
Clink!
Shin Jung-ah clinked her soju glass against Lee Ha-yoon’s and drained it in one satisfying gulp.
“Ahhhh!”
It was a Korean Beef Specialty Restaurant.
While they had premium traditional soju available, the interior and atmosphere were better suited to the standard variety, and the menu featured special lunch sets as well.
Sizzle!
Shin Jung-ah flipped the beef grilling over the charcoal with tongs, casting a glance toward Lee Ha-yoon.
“But why aren’t you saying anything about congratulating me?”
“Congratulations.”
“Get lost.”
“You complain whether I congratulate you or not.”
Shin Jung-ah raised her middle finger and placed the most perfectly cooked beef onto her plate.
She popped it into her mouth in one bite, then washed away the lingering grease and aftertaste with a sip of soju.
“Ahhhhh!”
“You’ve completely turned into an old man with this promotion. Don’t you shave anymore?”
“You’re loud. What’s bothering you?”
This was a celebration of my promotion.
A time when we should be eating good food with peace of mind and just chatting—yet it felt insufficient.
But even as Lee Ha-yoon diligently ate the expensive beef, her expression remained gloomy, filling me with disappointment and concern.
“There’s nothing bothering me.”
“Hey, tell me. Your sister will listen.”
“Want to die?”
“Just tell me. Don’t worry about my promotion.”
Lee Ha-yoon twisted her lips and took a sip of soju.
Then she clicked her tongue softly before speaking.
“It’s work-related, what else.”
“Why? Did some difficult client get to you again?”
At the word “difficult client,” Lee Ha-yoon’s face crumpled, but she shook her head seriously, her brows furrowed.
“No, no. It’s more like a moral dilemma.”
Lee Ha-yoon clicked her tongue while Shin Jung-ah watched with a look that said she was spouting nonsense.
“Since I’m being serious, try opening your eyes a little more kindly.”
Tap.
Lee Ha-yoon set down her chopsticks entirely and crossed her arms.
“A client came in, and I don’t know whether I should take the case or not.”
“Why?”
“Because of a new law being implemented. It’s called the Direct Lineal Ancestor Inheritance Deprivation Act.”
It’s a law designed to prevent parents who failed to fulfill their parental obligations from inheriting simply because of blood relations.
Shin Jung-ah was aware of it since it had been covered on the news a few times.
“This current client is exactly that type of case.”
“But you specialize in divorce law.”
“…Well, it turns out there aren’t that many people actually seeking divorce counseling.”
Lee Ha-yoon answered in a deflated voice, struck where it hurt, and Shin Jung-ah looked at her the way one might regard a dog caught in the rain.
“Anyway! The client is the biological mother, and she wants to claim the remaining money in her deceased son’s name.”
“People like that still exist these days?”
“I know. Even after I explained the legal situation, she kept pushing.”
“Good grief.”
Glug glug glug.
Shin Jung-ah poured soju into Lee Ha-yoon’s glass with a sympathetic gaze.
“But that woman really… if she’s coming to you, a divorce specialist, she must have been rejected everywhere else.”
“Obviously. The son’s inheritance is only two million won.”
“What? A measly two million won?”
“Exactly! I explained to her that this could easily become a case where the effort costs more than the gain, but she clings to it stubbornly. It’s such a headache. Such a headache.”
She’s gotten tangled up with a strange person.
Shin Jung-ah thought this to herself as she sipped her soju.
“Pfft! Why overthink it? She’s clearly odd—just turn her down.”
“It’s just… something about it bothers me.”
“What now?”
Annoyed by the dreary tone of the conversation, Shin Jung-ah clicked her tongue, while Lee Ha-yoon scratched near her crown with the handle of her chopsticks and furrowed her brow.
“If it were two hundred million won, maybe. But to go this far for just two million won…”
Of course, there are cases where the amount doesn’t matter.
If I think about it romantically enough, it’s the only thing remaining in that child’s name, so perhaps she wants to claim even that money.
But romance is rare precisely because it is romance.
“Don’t you think she believes there’s more to extract?”
“The deceased son is younger than us.”
Shin Jung-ah frowned as she reached for the beef with her chopsticks, and Lee Ha-yoon tilted her head back, exhaling a sigh toward the ceiling.
“Only twenty-four years old. Male. He’d been discharged from the military for exactly six months. That two million won seems to have been saved from convenience store part-time work.”
“Hmm.”
“Doesn’t it seem strange? There’s no reason for her to go this far. And the aunt who raised him doesn’t seem clean either. She took him in at age five, then made every excuse imaginable and even moved, never showing her face once after that.”
It’s strange.
The more I hear, the stranger it becomes.
If I were to weigh which of the two is more suspicious, the biological mother seems highly questionable, but the aunt doesn’t appear clean either.
“Could she be thinking there’s more than two million won in assets?”
“I think so too. I’ve heard military salaries have increased quite a bit lately, so she might be thinking she can extract around ten million won.”
“…If that’s really the case, that’s incredibly vicious.”
“Exactly.”
Sizzzzle.
Meat juices dripped from the beef onto the charcoal, sending up smoke, and the perfectly cooked meat shriveled and twisted, yet no chopsticks reached for it.
Instead, an air as heavy as the smoke itself hung between the two of them.
“Whether it’s my biological mother or my adoptive parent, they both reek of something rotten.”
“Mmm.”
“I’m caught between the person who gave birth to me and the person who raised me, fighting each other. I don’t know which side to take.”
Now Shin Jung-ah understood why Lee Ha-yoon had agonized over this so deeply.
The person who gave birth to her and the person who raised her.
They were fighting with a dead son between them, and the problem was that both of them had plenty of suspicious aspects.
“…So what do you think?”
“If I’d decided, would I have this expression on my face?”
Lee Ha-yoon drained the remaining soju in her glass with evident frustration.
“Ugh! Phew, this is hard. So hard. I don’t even know what’s right anymore.”
Draped across the table like melting wax, she muttered an additional thought.
“Can’t even ask the dead son for his opinion. Sigh.”
This was hardly the demeanor one should display at a celebration.
Yet Shin Jung-ah didn’t look at her with disappointment about the soured mood—instead, she regarded her with that familiar ‘this is so Ha-yoon’ feeling.
If she only cared about the legal fees, she wouldn’t be wrestling with such dilemmas.
She was genuinely contemplating her own sense of justice and agonizing over the immediate task before her to uphold it.
“Damn it, the beef’s all charred.”
Suddenly noticing the meat on the grill turning into charcoal, she hurriedly moved the tongs.
But the meat, blackened beyond recovery, was like her blackened heart—flipping it over wouldn’t restore what was lost.
“Ugh, tsk.”
With a regretful sigh, Shin Jung-ah pushed all the burnt meat to one side and met Lee Ha-yoon’s gaze, her own heart burning as black as the ruined beef.
“If you’re that troubled, ask for help.”
“Huh? From who?”
“You know who I mean. It’s been so long since you contacted him, you forgot?”
Lee Ha-yoon blinked blankly, lost in thought.
Then she suddenly sat up straight and met Shin Jung-ah’s gaze.
“Wait, can Kang Hyung-seok actually do something like this?”
“Why wouldn’t he be able to?”
Shin Jung-ah spoke with a shrug, and Lee Ha-yoon questioned her incredulously.
“But why are you being so smug about it?”
“Well, I mean, we’re close, so…”
Embarrassed, Shin Jung-ah picked up the soju bottle and poured a drink for Lee Ha-yoon.
“Anyway! I’ll mention it to him, so just relax and eat your meat. Stop moping around.”
“Oh really?”
“If you’re not going to eat it, then just eat the side dishes.”
As Shin Jung-ah tried to pull the plate of beef toward herself, Lee Ha-yoon quickly grabbed the opposite end.
The two of them bickered and continued their celebration until every piece of beef on the plate was gone.
***
“So you’re asking me to take a look at it?”
“Yeah, sure.”
It was the next day.
Kang Hyung-seok and Shin Jung-ah, who had visited a client together, were eating galbitang at the Grandmother-Themed Restaurant, and Shin Jung-ah, who had nearly finished her meal, carefully set down her spoon.
“How can I make this work…?”
Her cautious tone carried an embarrassed glimmer in her eyes.
Kang Hyung-seok took another spoonful of broth for no particular reason, then pulled out a napkin and wiped his mouth.
“It’s not particularly difficult, but….”
“I know! I do too. I’m asking a lot of you when you’re already so busy, Manager Kang.”
Shin Jung-ah spoke with genuine remorse, then crossed her arms and let out a groan.
“Still, Ha Yoon’s been worrying so much about it that I can’t just leave it alone….”
“Mm.”
“Just help me out this once, okay?”
Kang Hyung-seok took a sip of water with a look that suggested she didn’t need to ask so earnestly.
Tap.
As he set down the glass, the tense Shin Jung-ah flinched, and Kang Hyung-seok, feeling apologetic instead, picked up the glass again and opened his mouth.
“You don’t need to ask so politely. I already knew Ha Yoon, and you’ve helped me before.”
“Huh? What help?”
“The victims who suffered from spirit marriages at the Shaman’s House before. You did something I couldn’t help with.”
“Ah, that. Yeah, that’s right.”
It was after Shin Jung-ah, who had raided the Shamanic Temple with Lee Ha-yoon back then, laughed awkwardly.
“It’s been a while since we’ve seen each other, so let me visit this time.”
“Really? You’ll help me?”
Shin Jung-ah sent a look that was apologetic yet genuinely grateful.
Finding that burdensome, Kang Hyung-seok raised the corners of his mouth in a bitter smile.
“You got promoted to Deputy Director too.”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“Think of it as my way of showing sincerity.”
Shin Jung-ah, understanding his true meaning, concealed her feelings behind an awkward smile.
Yet her eyes remained the same, so I could tell what she was thinking.
She was simply grateful.
How could she not be grateful when someone willingly helped her friend’s matter?
“Thank you, really.”
“No, you’ve helped me a lot too.”
“Ugh.”
Shin Jung-ah’s lips, which had been expressing gratitude, stiffened.
Over time, Shin Jung-ah had helped Kang Hyung-seok earnestly in her own way.
Not just with work at the Company, but also with matters related to possession.
“It’s not just because of that. Anyway, you can speak more comfortably about these things.”
“Yeah….”
“So we just need to go together after work today, right?”
“Yeah. I’ll let Ha Yoon know.”
“Understood.”
Kang Hyung-seok picked up the bill and rose from his seat.
He left the restaurant and returned to the Company, submitted his report, called another client to schedule a visit, and continued working on spreadsheets.
Finally, quitting time arrived, and he descended to the Underground Parking Lot with Shin Jung-ah, entering the destination address into the navigation system.
“This is the right way to go, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. Ha Yoon should be waiting for us.”
“It’s been a while since we’ve met.”
“She’ll probably be incredibly grateful.”
Kang Hyung-seok began driving with a slight smile, following the navigation’s guidance.
However, as he exited the Underground Parking Lot, his smile faded.
Regardless of the circumstances, this was a journey to find a Victim Spirit who had departed from the world at such a young age.
Believing it proper to observe courtesy, Kang Hyung-seok steadied his resolve and continued driving toward his destination.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————